Terms of Words Javaness Karate to English

Japanese

Phonetic

English

Autagani	or-tah-gah-nee	GKR mis-pronunciation of Otagai
Budo	boo-doh	Martial way
Dan	dahn	"Level"; one; single
Do	doe	"Way"
Dojo	doe-joe	"Way place" - training hall
Gi	gee	Karate uniform
Go	go	"Hard"; "five"
Godan	go-dahn	"Fifth level"
Gyaku	gya-koo	Reverse; opposite
Hai	hay	"Yes"
Hajime	ha-jim-ay	"Begin"
Han	hahn	"Half"
Hara	hah-rah	Spiritual centre
Heian	he-un	Quiet mind
Hombu	hom-boo	Chief dojo; headquarters
Jiyu kumite	jee-you koo-me-tay	Free sparring
Ju	joo	"Soft"; "gentle"; "pliant"; "ten"
Ka	kah	"Practitioner"
Kage/Kake	kah-gay	"Hook/ing"
Kai	kie	"Association"
Kake/Kage	ka-kay	"Hook/ing"
Kamae	Kam-ay	Prepare; adopt a combat readiness stance
Kan	kahn	"School" or "system"
Karate	kah-ra teh	"Empty hand" Japanese unarmed combat
Ki	key	"Spirit"
Kiai	key-aye	Shout of spirit or focus
Kime	kim-ay	Focus
Kon ni chi wa	kohn nee chee wah	"Hello"
Kumite	koo-mee-tay	"Meeting of hands" Sparring
Kyu	cue	Junior rank below black belt - See mudansha
Maai	may-aye	Distancing; timing; oppoortunity
Makiwara	mah-key-wah-rah	Striking post
Mokuso	mok-soh	"Quiet thought"; Close your eyes; meditation
Mokuso yame	mok-sow ya-may	"Stop quiet thought"; Open your eyes
Mudansha	moo-dahn-shah	Junior rank below black belt - See yudansha
Nidan	nee-dahn	"Second level"
Otagai	oh-toe-guy-ee	Each other
Rei	ray	"Bow"
Ryu	ree-you	School or lieneage of martial arts
Sanbon kumite	sahn-bon koo-me-tay	Three-step sparring
Sandan	sahn-dahn	"Third level"
Seiza	say-za	Formal kneeling
Sempai	sem-pie	"Senior"; assistant teacher
Sensei	sen-say	Teacher; instructor
Shihan	she-hahn	Master teacher
Shodan	shoh-dahn	First level
Taigyoku/Taikyoku	teye-gyo-koo	"First cause"
Taikyoku/Taigyoku	teye-kyo-koo	"First cause"
Tsuki/Tzuki/Zuki	tzoo-key	"Thrust" strike
Tzuki/Tsuki/Zuki	tzoo-key	"Thrust"; strike
Waza	wah-zuh	Techniques
Yame	yah-may	Stop
Yondan	yon-dahn	Fourth level
Yudansha	yew-dahn-shah	Student of black belt rank - See Mudansha
Zennin	zen-yin	Everybody (see autagani)
Zuki/Tzuki/Tsuki	zoo-key	"thrust towards" strike

Punches and Strikes Words

The term Karate Stance of the Japanese language to English

Term Word Karate Javanese to English

Most of the terms that we use in class are actually composites of multiple Japanese words. Jodan tzuki for instance, uses "jodan" (upper level) and "tzuki" (punch). We interpret this (slightly inaccurately) to mean "head-level punch".

Just like English, there are lots of words that can be used to clarify the main action. Anyway, these actions and modifiers are generally just grouped together in a type of dojo abbreviation which, whilst not absolutely grammatically correct, gets the point over with the minimum number of words.

It's usual to specify the side (left, right), the level (high, low, etc), the body part (single knuckle, forefist, etc), the direction (rising, roundhouse, straight, etc), and the technique (punch, kick, block, etc) in that order. For example, migi gedan choku tzuki or jodan kizami ren tzuki. In Japan, they might add the word "no" (of) after the side command, but we tend to leave it out.

You know that a straight punch can be performed at multiple levels and you recognise the word that describes the level at which it is performed - I don't need to insult your intelligence by actually stating each variant in full.

In constructing this guide, I've consulted numerous Japanese people and they often disagreed about the exact meaning of a word. For starters, many words only exist in a martial arts context, so if Japanese people are not familiar with martial arts, they wouldn't necessarily know the meaning of words, any more than you would know the meaning of medical terms unless you were in that field. To further complicate things, some words are not only context sensitive, but even depend upon the kanji (Japanese characters) used to write them. Take the term "uchi": it means both "inside" and "strike", and the Japanese word sounds exactly the same in both instances. Some words have a literal and intepreted meaning.:For instance dojo literally means "way place", but we use it to mean training hall. Pronunciation notes

Strictly speaking, virtually nobody in a European, Antipodean or American dojo pronounces Japanese words properly. Originally, I started by writing the GKR way of saying the words, but to be honest, I've decided against that approach. In describing each word's pronounciation, I've tried to break it down into the component sounds, which I've written. Any word in our language can be expressed using a standard set of 41 phonemes (sound elements). If you encounter an element that you recognise as a word, then it is pronounced exactly as you would normally pronounce that word. For instance "dojo" can be expressed as "doe-joe". Unfortunately, there are a few recurring vowel sounds that can't be expressed using real words, and these are clarified below:

Alternate spellings

You'll notice quite a few words that are separated by a forward slash like this tsuki/tzuki/zuki. This indicates common alternate spellings of the words. Many Japanese sounds cannot be precisely written in English because we have no exact equivalent sound. 

General Terms Here